Malicious WiFi networks: A first look

WiFi networks have become ubiquitously deployed. Anecdotal evidence suggests that wireless networks are less secure than wired networks. However, very little quantitative data exists to characterize the insecurity levels of WiFi networks. In this paper, we take a first look at city-level WiFi security statistics for eighteen cities within the United States. For the purposes of this study, we define unsecure WiFi networks as those that do not use WEP, WPA2 or any WiFi security standard. We found that on average, 45 percent of WiFis studied were insecure, with Miami, FL having 81 percent of WiFi networks unsecure. We also found that Texas had several cities with a high number of blacklisted IP addresses. In the end, we found no strong correlation between WiFi insecurity rates and blacklisting rates, which we attribute to inadequate education of the inhabitants of cities on how to report malicious activity so that perpetuators can be blacklisted. Finally, we found that the percentage of secure WiFi networks in cities with municipal WiFi networks was comparable to that of cities without municipal WiFi networks.